What it's like to use the thinnest smartphone in the world

The Oppo R5
is the thinnest smartphone you can buy. It's 4.85mm thin, which
is more than two millimeters slimmer than the iPhone 6.

I've been using the $445 Oppo R5 for about a week, and it truly
is a gorgeous device. It looks elegant, polished, and its screen
is incredible.

I've tested a ton of phones, and it's the only one that's
attracted the attention of my coworkers as they walked by my
desk.

But it made me wonder whether or not there's any benefit from
using a phone that's so skinny.

Here's the funny thing about the Oppo R5. It looks like something
you'd want to hold, but once you get your hands on it, the phone
feels rigid and angular. Being so thin automatically makes the R5
feel light, but it also feels delicate, and I wouldn't feel
comfortable using it without a case.

It seems like the phone was designed more to be looked at rather
than held. That's not to say this really limited me from using
the phone in any way - it's just something I observed since I'm
used to phones that are more rounded like the iPhone 6, HTC One,
and Galaxy Note 4. Unlike those phones, Oppo's device isn't
available in the US just yet, although you can technically
order it from Amazon and use it via Wi-Fi.

The phone's design and display are without a doubt its greatest
two features. The Oppo R5 features a 5.2-inch AMOLED 1080p
screen, which is similar to that of the Galaxy S5.

The Oppo R5 is about as
thin as a magazine.Business Insider/
Lisa Eadicicco

Looking and photos and watching
Netflix on the Oppo R5 was pleasant; the picture was extremely
crisp and colorful. I did notice, however, that the iPhone 6
Plus' screen displayed colors a little more
vibrantly.

The one thing about the phone's design that sticks out in a
negative way — literally — is its camera. Since the Oppo R5 is so
svelte, the camera noticeably bulges out.

Business Insider/ Lisa
Eadicicco

Still, the camera takes decent
photos and is capable of capturing plenty of light.

Take a look at the two images below. You'll notice the coloring
is noticeably different in each one. The photo shot with Oppo's
13-megapixel camera is bright, clear, and colorful, especially
when you look at the main building. But, the lower left corner
looks a bit too dark. The lighting and coloring throughout the
iPhone 6 Plus' photo looks more even and balanced, although the
building doesn't look quite as sharp and defined as it does in
Oppo's photo.

Oppo R5

Lisa Eadicicco

iPhone 6 Plus

Lisa Eadicicco

But there's another downside to the R5's ultra thin frame —
there's no headphone jack. Oppo supplies a pair of its own
headphones that plug directly into the phones micro USB port, but
that's likely to be a significant drawback for at least some
consumers. Don't count on using your own pair of headphones
unless you plan on buying an adapter.

Business Insider/ Lisa
Eadicicco

Other than it's extreme thinness, one of the first things you'll
notice when you pick up the R5 is its interface. It runs on a
skinned version of Android that put some of Oppo's apps up front,
such as its music player. There's no app drawer — you simply
swipe over to access the next home screen, which houses all of
your apps.

Like most Android phones, you can swipe down from the top to see
notifications and a few quick settings. Pulling down on the quick
settings row reveals an additional two rows of settings options
too.

A rather strange feature, however, is the ability to assign
certain gestures to actions. If you swipe up from the bottom,
you'll launch Oppo's "Global gestures board," which allows you to
trace a letter to launch a certain app or call a particular
contact.

I didn't find this to be very useful, but it was fun to play
around with. In most cases it's probably easier to launch a
certain app, but if you have tons of apps or widgets and don't
feel like digging around, it could be a worthwhile shortcut. I
traced the letters BI to launch the Business Insider website, for
example, and the letter J to call my sister Jen, and both
gestures worked perfectly.

Business Insider/ Lisa
Eadicicco

The Oppo R5's battery life
lasted moderately long, but overall it was mediocre compared to
what you could get from other Android devices. In my experience,
the Oppo R5 lasted for about a day after moderate to heavy use,
which included streaming Netflix, sending text messages, and
browsing the web sporadically throughout the day.

The Oppo R5 is one of the most gorgeous phones you can buy,
period. Plus, the screen is beautiful and the camera captures
clean, colorful photos. But, the phone feels a bit delicate and
rigid, and isn't the most comfortable to hold. The battery life
could be better, too.